B.E. presents Legendary Racing Lore: The Fan Wheel

Image 1,2,3: BBS. Image 4: Mugen CF48. Image 5: BMW M-System I. Image 6: Formula 1 McLaren 2008. Image 7: Audi A1 Clubsport

Fan wheel covers have one purpose: to move air across hot brake rotors to cool them.

Although a full article on them is hard to find, I can tell you this: they were very popular in the 80s and 90s on the racing cars of German make - BMW, Audi, and Porsche. Because of their use in racing, there were HORDES of aftermarket fan designs from European and Japanese wheel-makers. They have fallen out of fashion in recent years, but the 2008-09 F1 seasons did give them another chance before they were banned.

The wheel fan concept will always be relevant to performance cars. Old-style fan covers don’t look particularly attractive to the non-enthusiast, so automakers eventually learned to integrate the air-moving power of the fan into much more attractive wheel designs. Porsche Turbo ‘Twists’, C4 Corvette ‘Turbines’, and recently BMW has given the turbine style another go with the new ‘Turbine’ wheels on the 2012+ 3-series ‘Design Line’.

Another recent example are the wheels on the Audi A1 Clubsport Concept car.

Do you have a favorite aftermarket fan wheel? Photo Reply!

225 Notes/ Hide

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